The Individual Right To Bear Arms For Common Defense

The fundamental Second Amendment debate has reached a stalemate.  On the one side are those who believe that the Second Amendment secures an individual right to keep and bear arms for self-defense against crime.  On the other are those who consider the right to bear arms to be a collective right to maintain a militia.  But there is a third theory of the right to bear arms—a theory that was once generally agreed upon but has largely been forgotten:  the right to bear arms is an individual right for common defense.

ssrn-4918009